Yadi named NL Gold Glove Award finalist

ST. LOUIS -- Yadier Molina, whose run of eight consecutive Gold Glove Awards was upended by Buster Posey last year, has been named a finalist for the honor once again.

Via its Twitter account on Thursday, Rawlings revealed that Molina, along with Posey and Tucker Barnhart, are finalists for the National League catching honors. The winner will be announced during a televised award show on Nov. 7 (8 p.m. CT) on ESPN. No other Cardinals player cracked the list of finalists.

ST. LOUIS -- Yadier Molina, whose run of eight consecutive Gold Glove Awards was upended by Buster Posey last year, has been named a finalist for the honor once again.

Via its Twitter account on Thursday, Rawlings revealed that Molina, along with Posey and Tucker Barnhart, are finalists for the National League catching honors. The winner will be announced during a televised award show on Nov. 7 (8 p.m. CT) on ESPN. No other Cardinals player cracked the list of finalists.

A ninth Gold Glove would move Molina closer to prestigious catching company. The only catchers to have won the award more times than Molina are Ivan Rodriguez (13) and Johnny Bench (10). Molina would also move into a tie with Bob Gibson for the second-most Gold Glove Awards for a Cardinals player. Ozzie Smith's mark of 11 remains the franchise record.

In another demonstration of his remarkable durability, Molina led all Major League catchers with 133 starts behind the plate. He logged 1,125 2/3 innings, marking the eighth time in the past nine seasons Molina has eclipsed 1,100 innings at catcher.

After posting a career-low 26-percent caught-stealing rate in 2016, he bumped that up to 36 percent this year. That ranked third-best in the NL among catchers with at least 100 games played.

Molina didn't rate so highly in Defensive Runs Saved, finishing at a plus-three. Barnhart, in comparison, led all NL catchers with a plus-21 DRS. He also caught 200 fewer innings than Molina.

Gold Glove winners are determined by a vote of managers and coaches, as well as a sabermetric component that the Society for American Baseball Research contributes. After the league winners are announced at each position, those players will be considered for the Platinum Glove Award, given annually to the best defender at any position in both leagues.

This year's Gold Glove Awards represent just one way the game's top performers will be recognized. Voting is underway now for the Esurance MLB Awards, which annually honor MLB's greatest achievements as part of an industry-wide balloting process. MLB Awards season will culminate on Friday, Nov. 17, when winners are announced live on MLB Network and MLB.com starting at 8 p.m. ET.